


Stories Not Found In A Book

by Racethewind_10



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV), Warehouse 13
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-26
Updated: 2014-06-26
Packaged: 2018-02-06 07:19:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1849276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Racethewind_10/pseuds/Racethewind_10
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once upon a time, Henry Mills had believed stories were better than real life, for in the stories, good always defeated evil and heroes never died. Once upon a time, Henry wished very hard that his life would be like a story.</p><p>He’d gotten his wish.</p><p>Now he understands why the saying goes “be careful what you wish for…”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stories Not Found In A Book

**Author's Note:**

> Henry is sent to Univille to live with his mother's friend, Helena "HG" Wells, and muses on life and how its not quite like the stories. Character study and fluff.

This chapter came about as a comment fic on [Deathtodickens](http://archiveofourown.org/users/deathtodickens/profile)' delightful [crossover art](http://deathtodickens.tumblr.com/post/89777579665/when-the-suffocating-swell-of-heteronormativity).  The description goes,

When the suffocating swell of heteronormativity threatens the co-parenting relationship that Regina and Emma have built around the son they lovingly share, the two women decide it is in Henry’s best interest to leave Storybrooke.

To save him witnessing the destruction of the foundation his family is built upon, Regina and Emma send Henry to live with Regina’s cousin, Helena Wells, and her partner, Myka Bering, until such a day that Storybrooke is rid of this growing threat.

Until such a day that they, all three of them together, can live happily ever after...

* * *

 

 

Once upon a time, Henry Mills had believed stories were better than real life, for in the stories, good always defeated evil and heroes never died. Once upon a time, Henry wished very hard that his life would be like a story.

He’d gotten his wish.

Now he understands why the saying goes “be careful what you wish for…”

Henry has grown up a great deal in the last few years, enough that when he meets Helena “HG” Wells, he recognizes an all too familiar sadness shading her dark brown eyes. A part of him wonders if this isn’t yet another way life has of telling him just how wrong he was to be so angry at the woman who raised him. 

He wonders if he’ll ever be done feeling guilty for those years. 

That guilt is at least partially why, no matter how much he  _hates_ to be separated from his moms, he goes without complaint when they tell him the plan. Because he can see the desperation in his mother’s dark eyes and the way his ma grits her teeth and he remembers too many times when they got hurt trying to protect him. He remembers lost memories and lost years and the sight of dark-haired mother being thrown to the ground by magic and not moving and he never wants that again. So he stands up tall and doesn’t try to fight back when they send him away to protect him. 

It’s not _all_ bad though, even if he worries a lot and calls them every night.

Univille isn’t too terrible after Storybrooke. The wifi is pretty amazing actually. Pete is a goof but has a genuinely kind heart and underneath Claudia’s geeky awkward exterior is a lot of sympathy for kids who get themselves stolen away or sucked through magic portals. She’s a little vague on the details but the understanding is genuine. It makes him feel pretty good actually.  Also Claudia has a sick gaming system. Some insane chimera of every single console on the market connected by enough wires and backed up with an extra server that he jokes about accidentally creating an AI and she mutters under her breath something that sounds like “only the first time.”

Henry doesn’t ask for a clarification.

Artie is grumpy but mostly harmless and Abigail - Dr. Cho - isn’t around much but she treats him like an adult when she talks to him so he appreciates that. Myka is a bit harder to get a read on because she works a lot at the job no one can tell him about, but Henry grew up down the street from Red Riding Hood, his mom was The Evil Queen and his grandparents are Snow White and Prince Charming, so he kind of gets that there are some things the world just isn’t ready for.  The one thing they _are_ all willing to assure him is that what they do isn’t “magic.”

“More like crazy-ass steampunky science with some metaphysics thrown in. But definitely no spell-casting, curse-breaking magic. Though people _do_ sometimes get turned into rabbits…it’s complicated,” Claudia tells him and Henry nods. Once it would have driven him crazy not to know.  Now…he’s had to watch other people pay the price for his quest for the truth too many times. He’s willing to let it be.

H.G. fascinates him, though. It’s kind of hard not to have just a bit of hero crush on the  _actual_  H.G. Wells and it doesn’t take long for Henry to kind of love living with his “aunts” at the B&B.  They remind him so much of his moms sometimes. Not that Myka and Emma have that much in common, Myka doesn’t swear or eat sugar for one thing, but there’s something incredibly familiar in the way his blonde mom and Myka are like…anchors. His mother and HG always seem just on the verge of spinning away - like a moon that slips the gravitational orbit of its planet - but they never do, pulled back time and time again to where they should be. It’s pretty obvious with his moms. They hold hands and hug and Emma has this habit of walking up behind Regina and wrapping her arms around the smaller woman. He should probably find it gross but it’s actually pretty adorable. 

Unless they start kissing, then it’s definitely gross. 

Myka and HG are more subtle. Subtle enough that it takes him a while to pin down why they feel so familiar. Because they don’t really hold hands or hug and if they are making out (and they probably are because well, he’s 14 and they are definitely hot but they’re his adoptive aunts so that’s gross too) they don’t let anyone see. 

But that connection is still there. It’s in the way they look at each other and the way HG’s eyes will always follow Myka around a room. The way Myka will always end up standing incredibly close to HG - closer than anyone else in any room they are in, and the way they let their hands brush across each other. Not really holding, just like they’re reminding each other they are still  _here._  

Henry can figure out just from overheard snippets of conversation and the weight of those glances that just like his mother, H.G. has been hurt pretty badly. He doesn’t ask about it, that’s not his place, but when he sees the way she smiles at him when he asks about her writing, he makes a note to do it more often. The soft look of gratitude Myka gives him later that night makes him feel good; feel older and wiser and yet somehow still young, like when his mom would praise him for getting A’s on his schoolwork. 

When H.G. tells him, some weeks later, that her little girl died, he can’t really say he’s surprised, but it hurts nonetheless. 

"You did bad stuff because of it," he asks, but it’s not really a question and H.G. merely nods, her eyes full of sadness and she looks so much like mom then. He doesn’t really mean to say it out loud but the words come anyway and H.G. looks at him with something that would be respect if it weren’t still so weary. 

"Your mother…Henry your mother has survived things that would have broken most people. Would have broken  _me.”_  

And on some level he has understood that for a while now, but to hear the words spoken by someone like H.G…He feels very small and very young and very ashamed in that moment and the older woman must see it because she shakes her head and reaches out to brush his bangs from his forehead. It’s something his mom would do, and H.G. doesn’t touch people other than Myka much so he understands the importance of that gesture. 

"But she has _you_ , darling. And no matter what has happened between you, you are the most precious thing in her life." She says it with such sincerity and not a little longing that he has to look away, flushing and scuffing his toe. 

"I used to think she was evil," he admits, shame hot and thick in his throat.  

Instead of recrimination, however, H.G. merely nods, strands of her ink-black hair slipping over her shoulder.  “And in many ways, so she was. It’s why your mother and I have become close. We have dwelt in darkness for a very long time, Henry, and nothing can excuse that. We can only try to be better. And she _is_.” 

"I know," he says quickly, because he does. He sees it now. "It’s just…" He stops, the words and the emotions behind them too big to fit in his mouth.

"It’s scary to love someone who’s trying to be a hero." 

Both he and H.G. look up in surprise at the voice coming from the door. Neither one had heard Myka approach but she’s leaning against the door frame, that look on her face that reminds him so much of Emma; soft and sad and knowing.

"Yeah," he admits after a moment of turning it over in his head. It’s why even now his cell phone is in his pocket and fully charged and he checks it all the time, even though he  _knows_ it’s working properly. 

H.G. just looks away. 

"It’s worth it though," Myka says quietly, and Henry gets that she’s not really talking to him. But H.G. still isn’t looking at Myka so he agrees because if he’s learned one thing from watching his moms, it’s that you can never say ‘I love you’ too many times. 

In fact, he’s _just_   thinking of calling them because they should have checked in an hour ago, when his phone buzzes. His heart is in his throat and his fingers feel shaky as he stabs the ‘answer’ button but he doesn’t even get a greeting out before he hears Emma say, “Hey kid, get your butt outside,” and he can hear the smile in her voice as he goes flying past Myka and out the front door. 

His moms are just barely getting out of the Benz and he nearly tackles his mother he hugs her so hard. When her arms come around him and she clings tightly, though, he knows it’s the right thing to do. Emma is slower to approach but he grins at her and then her arms are around both of them and it’s so much better than any stupid fairy tale because this is home and family and everything that really matters.

* * *

 

Later he’ll walk back into the B & B between his moms and watch as Myka and Emma greet each other with fond awkwardness and his mother and H.G. embrace with something that looks a lot like relief. It’s almost eerie, seeing the two of them together, so alike in so many ways, and the almost matching expressions of devotion on Emma and Myka’s faces is weird and wonderful, but almost too much – like he’s looking at something that’s not meant for anyone but them.  

Fortunately, Pete chooses that moment to come tromping down the stairs and the mood gets a lot lighter after that. There is talk of dinner and Claudia pops up out of nowhere (all this time here, he never has figured out how she does that) and then Steve and Abigail and Artie come back from wherever they work and things are crowded and noisy and warm and bright. It’s a little awkward and a lot funny and his moms are holding hands and smiling at each other and Helena and Myka are standing shoulder to shoulder and Pete is telling dumb jokes while Claudia makes faces at him and its weird but it’s also kind of perfect. 

Tomorrow he and his moms will drive back to Storybrooke and there will be a new chapter in their lives. There will probably be drama and danger and evil to fight (because hey, it’s still Storybrooke) but Henry realizes he hasn’t cared about any of that in quite some time.  Those stories are only fun and exciting when they happen to fictional characters. Here, in this world, he knows that ‘evil’ is all too often created by pain and loss and that ‘good’ comes in all shapes and sizes and places. The little boy who once ran away from home to find his birth mother, hoping she’d slay a dragon, passes a basket of rolls to the inventor of science fiction and knows he’d be perfectly happy if he never saw magic or fairies or elves or a dragon again for the rest of his life. 

Because home is two women who he loves more than anything in the world and the best story is right here, around this table.

It’s one he hopes desperately has a happy ending. 

 Fin


End file.
